5 - Why Patrick Ewing was the 39th best player ever 4 - Should Bill Walton have won the 1978 MVP? Read some previews from 'The Book of Basketball' as we count down to the official release date of October 27. So yeah, Walton missed 24 games and had an abnormally profound impact on the regular season, winning 50 games during a season when only two other teams finished with 50-plus wins: Philly (55) and San Antonio (52). He missed the next 22 games and the Blazers stumbled to an 8-14 finish (hold on, huge 'but/still' combo coming up), but they still finished with a league-best 58 wins and clinched home court for the Playoffs. The case for Walton: He played 58 of the first 60 games and the Blazers went 50-10 over that stretch. So Walton drew the most votes (96), Gervin finished second (80.5), Thompson third (28.5) and Kareem fourth (14) a dude from Venice named Manny, the league's unofficial coke dealer, finished fifth (10). Guards weren't supposed to win MVPs back then only Cousy and Oscar had done it, and as much as we loved Skywalker and Ice, they weren't Cousy and Oscar. 33 The strongest candidates were George Gervin (27-5-4, 54% FG) and David Thompson (27-5-5, 52% FG), both leading scorers for division winners who weren't known for their defense.

Erving submittedĪ subpar (for him) season. Kareem sucker-punched Kent Benson on opening night, missed 20 games and struggled for the remainder of the season. Leonard 'Truck' Robinson) and assists champ (the one, the only, Kevin But we're talking about an especially loony season, as evidenced by our rebounding champ (Mr. It's hard to imagine anyone qualifying for MVP after missing twenty-four games, much less taking the trophy home. FYI: It's 60 percent off on now - just $12. Order 'The Book of Basketball' from, Barnes & Noble, Borders or IndieBound. Two weeks after the SI story/jinx, the big redhead injured his foot and didn't return until the Playoffs, when he fractured that same foot in Game 2, killing Portland's playoff hopes and leading to his inevitable messy departure. 31 Right as that team was cresting, the February 13, 1978, Sports Illustrated - one of the watershed issues of my childhood because of an insane Sidney Moncrief tomahawk dunk on the cover - ran an extended feature on the Blazers in which Rick Barry called them 'maybe the most ideal team ever put together.' Everything centered around Walton (19-15-5, 3.5 blocks), the next Russell, an unselfish big man who made teammates better and even shared killer weed with them. The greatest player alive and pushed that Portland team to surreal heights. Should Bill Walton Have Won the 1978 MVP?Įven an unbiased observer would admit that for the eleven months stretching from April '77 through February '78, the Mountain Man was This excerpt is from a chapter called 'The Most Valuable Chapter,' where I break down the fishiest MVP choices in NBA history and determine whether they were justified picks or not.

The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons